100 Words
by Wedjatqi
Summary: Each chapter is only 100 words  mostly  written for the Beya 100 Word challenge.  John and Teyla struggle with the loss of someone close. JT. Pls note the warning listed on this fic. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**Part**: 1/16

**Rating**: **T**

**Warnings: **Character death.

**Disclaimers**: I own no part of the Stargate world, I make no money from this, so on and so forth.

**Note:** This was written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Leaves'. I decided to tell a story in tiny snippets, with each chapter being 100 words inspired by a different prompt each, telling one overall story. I must stress that it is important that readers note the warning on this fic. I am going to post all the chapters in one go - don't get used to that though :)

**Leaves**

The chilled morning breeze stirred around their gathered group, dancing the dried fallen leaves around their ankles and close to the gaping hole.

The solemn ritualised words were unfamiliar to her, but their meaning was universal.

Words for the fallen.

Their friend was gone.

Rodney was gone.

Their team was broken.

The grief swelled in her throat and against the cold within and without she stepped closer to the warmth of the tall strong presence of John and Ronon. Desperately she tried to absorb their strength into her, to deny the aching pain inside her heart.

Rodney was gone.

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

**Part**: 2/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Tremble.

**Tremble**

The cold had seeped into her and that was why she could feel the tremor inside.

She fought against it.

She had lost many in her life and she would honour Rodney with her strength.

She had to prove to those here unknowing of his true worth that he was a man who deserved all respect and honour.

She clasped her chilled hands tightly together as she looked down at the empty coffin. There was nothing inside for there had been nothing left to bury.

This funeral was for the living.

She clenched her hands tighter to control their trembling.

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

**Part**: 3/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Tormented'.

**Tormented**

He hated funerals.

The chilled morning air was sharp against his cheeks and he focused on it over the lingering empty words spoken over an empty coffin.

His eyes burned with cold, but he fought against warming them by relaxing his guard for even a moment. He couldn't let even one tear slip free.

Not yet.

Not here.

It hurt though - the struggle against the overwhelming deeper hurt.

Rodney was gone.

Teyla shifted closer beside him and John risked a glance down towards her.

His torment only increased at seeing her own struggle plain across her pale strong face.

000  
>TBC<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

**Part**: 4/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Find'.

**Find**

Her lips were pressed tightly together, her complexion drawn and pale, her eyes constantly moving as she blinked rapidly.

Her struggle pulled at him, tearing him out of his self-imposed isolation for a moment.

What could he do?

He hadn't been able to save Rodney. None of them had.

The pain threatened to strike free but he forced it back behind his heaven-high internal barriers.

Not yet.

Not ever.

Her struggle though, he couldn't hide that behind anything.

He had to look away, but in a moment of desperation for her, he reached out and found her hand with his.

000  
>TBC<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

**Part**: 5/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Life'.

**Life**

His touch was a burst of warmth, his hand solid and full of the strength she so desperately needed.

She clasped his hand far tighter than she intended.

His offer of comfort, even in the midst of his own clear pain-filled silent mourning, meant the world to her in that moment.

The warmth of his life, his hand in hers, and the offer of something as precious as comfort from him gave her focus though. It gave her a steady centre against the overwhelming grief.

She held his hand tighter as they both watched the first of the falling soil.

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

**Part**: 6/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Sleep'.

**Sleep**

Sleep never came. He didn't expect it to.

He instead just lay still and watched a movie, the sound off as Teyla slept on the other single bed.

Ronon had left some time ago; John had no idea how long ago.

He watched the movie plot unfold, guessing at most of it without sound or subtitles. His mind was otherwise shut down. He worked hard not to think, not to process, not to feel.

Not yet.

An ad break brought bright smiling faces so he looked away up to the ceiling and watched the long shadows cast across it instead.

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

**Part**: 7/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Bed'.

**Bed**

He lay still across the room, only the blinking of his eyes any indication that he was awake.

Except she could see the tension in him - in the rigid lines of muscle and clenched jaw.

The light shifted and his attention dropped back to the television, but his expression did not change.

His silent unspoken pain was evident in his absolute stillness.

She lay still watching him for a time, her heart heavy, until it became too much.

She slipped from her thin covers and moved silently through the darkness to the space beside him on his bed.

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	8. Chapter 8

**Part**: 8/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Precious'.

**Precious**

She was a sudden shift of shadows and new warmth as she lay beside him.

Perhaps any other day he would have reacted differently, wouldn't have simply responded instantly, knowing exactly what she needed and what she offered.

She tucked up against his side as if she had been there before.

Her shoulders felt chilled under his arm and so he pulled her a fraction closer to ward off the cold.

To ward off the pain.

Her soft warmth against him, her cheek against his shoulder and her breaths across his chest, all seemed to help ward off his own, and brought an unexpected new solace.

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

**Part**: 9/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Relax'.

**Relax**

He felt so strong and solid against her, his warmth flooding into her and calming so much of the pain.

She lay still against him, staring at the shifting black and white images of the movie, though occasionally they blurred.

She didn't try to hold back the escaping tears; she just let them seep down over her cheeks and into his shirt as she kept watching. Kept still, just drawing in his warmth and silent support as his arm tightened further around her.

His comfort given in the silence.

It was all she needed to keep strong.

To keep watching.

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	10. Chapter 10

**Part**: 10/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'healing'.

**Healing**

The movie had ended some time ago, but he had found other programmes to keep the distraction going for them both.

She was a wonderful warm gentle weight against him.

Her presence sank into him, easing and soothing, and somewhere in the middle of the dark night, their quiet breaths the only sounds, the pain became closer to bearable.

He ignored the shine of moisture on his own cheeks when he had felt her first tears. He had heard her breaths catching, felt her shudder against him, but they too drifted away into the night, leaving them quiet and empty.

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	11. Chapter 11

**Part**: 11/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Time'.

**Time**

The night had felt long, expanded in her awareness, but it also seemed too soon that the light began to show faintly through the thin curtains.

She had barely slept, her grief demanding so much, but also in lying against John, both of them awake and in silent support of one another, it had felt like a vigil for Rodney. Their own silent remembrance and shared expression of grief for their lost friend.

The tears had been cast and the memories replayed endlessly as she had watched muted Earth television through the night, and now she felt empty, but calmer.

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	12. Chapter 12

**Part**: 12/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Outside'.

**Outside**

It was morning. A new day. Another day without Rodney.

Yet, this morning, he found something else to focus on.

Teyla rolled slightly away from him to look over her shoulder towards the early sunlight forcing its way easily through the motel curtains.

He kept his arm around her shoulders as she did, not wanting the loss of contact just yet. He didn't want to get up yet, to have to go out into the new empty day.

She sighed heavily and rolled back into her place against him. Tucking herself closer again and he glanced down at her face.

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	13. Chapter 13

**Part**: 13/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Boyfriend'.

**Boyfriend**

"We should face the day," she uttered against his chest.

"Do we have to?"

He felt her smile. Perhaps the first in many long days.

"I too would prefer staying here."

That was nice to hear.

Old thoughts and ideas stirred back to life.

He had never held her before. He wouldn't be able to forget what it felt like any time soon.

Except there was Kanaan.

"Back to Atlantis," he said quietly.

"Yes," she said softly, painfully. Rodney was gone.

"At least you have Torren to hug…and Kanaan," he reminded her to ease her pain.

"No longer."

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	14. Chapter 14

**Part**: 14/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Author's choice, for which I chose 'Truth'.

**Truth**

"What?"

She kept her eyes on the television, watching the bright early morning faces smiling out of the screen.

"Kanaan and I, we parted sometime ago," she admitted. At least that pain had healed, had been right to feel.

She did not need to see John's face to see his frown, sense his confusion.

Silence far deeper than the night's held over them.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

Grief swelled again. "I told Rodney, just before…"

John's hand tightened on her arm a fraction in response to her breaking voice.

"I was waiting to tell you…" she paused, unsure.

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	15. Chapter 15

**Part**: 15/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Mouth'.

**Mouth**

The shock felt oddly apt with the way things had been lately. It was one more explosion of reality. Only this one was different.

It was not pain; it was not suffering and the knowing of unbearable pain to come. A coffin to carry, an empty seat across the table.

This was a shift of the world towards the good.

It was perhaps the recent struggle and night of physical comfort that breeched all his normal reserve with her.

He knew more than most how death could focus life.

He rolled them until he could see her face and press his mouth to hers.

0000  
>TBC<p> 


	16. Chapter 16

**Part**: 16/16

**Summary:** Written for the 100 Word Beya challenge – for the prompt 'Under'.

**Under**

His mouth was warm, a sudden rush of love and affection, realisation and acceptance.

She returned his kiss softly, his neck and shoulders warm under her hands.

She pulled him closer as their kiss deepened with a sharing of so much more than grief. Now there was something bright, real and old finally shared.

Despite all her years of questioning and silent hopes, it only felt natural now as he lay further over her.

She held him tightly, his kisses pressed to her cheek as their arms wrapped around one another and they lay entwined.

There was no need for words.

0000  
>THE END<p> 


End file.
